Advice needed: best street bike 1979-1981

I'm in the market for a new (old) bike and could use some advice. Because of a quirk in the insurance rates in my province (Saskatchewan) it is much cheaper to insure an "antique" bike that's more than 30 years old (on the order of $850/year cheaper). I'm looking for something in a reliable, economical and fun highway commuter with lots of parts available. Any thoughts?

edit Hey everyone, thanks for the suggestions. Lots of support for the CB750s. Anyone disagree?

Perfect advice here. Cb750 is considered one of the greatest bikes of all time and parts are easy to come by. Any size KZ is also gonna be great. You would be shocked at how fast and sturdy a KZ550 is. My good friend did many long tours on his and he hung with my BMW 1100 just fine. I grew to really respect that bike and would love to pick one up someday.

That hasn't been my experience. You can pick one up that is in pretty good condition - not a collectors piece, one that has actually been used - for $1500 (US). Mine was pretty rough when I bought it, but I paid $750. If I was inclined to do so, I could have sunk a grand into it and made it very nice.

Not always. My buddy rides a CB750K he picked up for 600 and hasn't really done much in the 3 years he's owned it except replace the tires, battery and chain. The CB is pretty common, and while immaculate bikes will fetch a decent sum, you can find something serviceable for a decent price.

Whatever bike you wind up with around that price, be prepared to work on it or dish out some extra money. I spent this winter undoing 27 years of materials degradation on a rack of carburetors.

These bikes are getting on a bit and, although there are still a lot of them around, there might not be any within collecting distance for you. In addition, some bikes of that era are now collectible classics that may be out of your budget. eg One of the best bikes on that list (IMO) is the Yamaha RD350LC but you won't find a good one these days for reasonable money.

Your best bet is to see what is available in your area within your budget and then post pack here for opinions of which is best from your shortlist. This is rather stating the obvious but the more popular the bike when new, the more likely the availability of spare parts today.

I'm confused - why is insurance the major determinant of what bike you want to purchase? Most cheap bikes aren't really work insuring - just get third party insurance in case you scratch a maserati or something. There's plenty of reliable, economical and fun highway commuter bikes available at a price that doesn't justify comprehensive insurance.

Yamaha XS650 I say... I have one, bulletproof motor, and cheapish over there... parts are very easy to get, even reproduction parts are available from mikesxs.com. Not as quick as a CB750, but I would argue simpler to work on, and can be a base bike for many styles of custom... The newer ones (79-82) are much cheaper than the early ones, but don't hold the value quite so well.

I have both my bikes licensed back home in Saskatchewan. I have a 76 GT380 and an 82 GS400. As long as you're at or under 400cc's, you can have cheap insurance too. I pay $15/month for the GS400 even though it's not an antique, the GT380 is $9/month like any other antique bike.

Hope this helps!

PS - If you're near Saskatoon, talk to my buddy Steve, he's a great guy and usually has a large fleet of old bikes for sale. I've PM'd you his details.